I’m not quite sure if I can sum up what’s gone on in since my last blog entry without writing something the length of War & Peace. My original intention to update the blog last weekend got a bit snookered by an unexpected, unwelcome and pretty much unnecessary lost weekend in hospital, so there’s far more gone on since the last blog than I expected to be the case.
Starting at the start seems relatively sensible. You know it’s not a good omen when a Monday afternoon phone call gives you an ‘urgent’ x-ray appointment the next day – a day on which you’ve already got three medical appointments.
By the end of Tuesday’s four appointments it was pretty clear that things had taken a relatively serious turn, and that from nowhere my kidneys had suddenly decided that they had a big steak in how things would develop.
So on to Wednesday, and phone calls booking me in for an operation I apparently already knew I was going to have – I didn’t – but not only that, telling me that the operation on my kidneys was far more serious and permanent than previously mentioned. A lot to get my head round at this point, and things were continuing to move and develop at a pretty significant rate.
It seems pretty fortunate as well that the bad weather held off as long as it did, as by Thursday afternoon I was en route to my third different hospital of the week for a short notice appointment to tell me that the information about permanency of operations I’d been given on Wednesday was in fact wrong. The planned operation was only a short-term fix and so the huge issues with my kidneys which I’d been struggling to get my head around and had left me pie-eyed weren’t actually so serious after all. To get on with my chemo treatment in good time, I needed to be under the knife – at the week’s fourth hospital – on Friday morning.
That went fine, but a full weekend in hospital wasn’t exactly what I had planned. I wouldn’t have minded so much, but by Sunday morning nobody really seemed to know why I was there, and being in hospital when none of the doctors on duty feels the need to see you – even after they’ve been asked to – seems a little pointless. At some point I was ordered an ambulance, which turned up partway through Sunday evening to take me over to Jimmy’s, where I was due for my next minor op on the Monday morning.
Saturday and Sunday showed the NHS at the level some of the media would love to suggest they’re always at – understaffed on the nursing side, administratively incompetent, and serving anaemic Sunday lunches. Good job they’re not always like that…
Not being sure how long I’d be in hospital for (or being too tightfisted – you decide) I didn’t want to shell out for the TV or internet. So this has meant that over those few days I’ve started reading more again, and ironically have appreciated the BBC even more. Overnight there has been the text commentary of the Ashes to keep me up to date on my mobile, courtesy of the wonderfully named Ben Dirs and his continual use of the marvellous word nurdles. Then there have also been the podcasts I downloaded before going into hospital, including an inspirational interview with Test Match Special’s Henry Blofeld. Unfortunately it’s not online anymore, so there’s probably nowhere on the net you can hear anybody talk about what it’s like to ride a bike into the front of a bus that’s doing 50mph. Well worth the licence fee!
Monday morning saw my latest encounter with a surgeon’s knife. Only a local anaesthetic was needed this time, which meant that I was faced with the odd sensation of knowing the surgeon was finishing off my operation to mid-90’s dance classic Dreamer by Livin’ Joy. A very strange moment!
Finally for this instalment, it was the stuff Alberto Contador’s dreams are made of – the hospital wanted to give me a blood transfusion (and that’s just his dreams – the rest of my prescription list is beyond your wildest dreams, Alberto). So on with that, and seeing as half the world’s blood is donated by Team Astana, my thanks are due to them for being so generous with their blood giving commitments.
Not as long until the next blog update now hopefully – and hopefully there’s less happening in the meantime…
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